The average price of a gallon is now $3.54 in the Southland, the lowest it’s been since February. If prices keep falling in 2012, it will certainly be interesting to see how consumers react. Will they buy hybrids or return to larger vehicles? And will those who have cars ride transit? Stay tuned.

A reminder that oil and gas comes from somewhere and there are serious impacts. Shell estimates that the spill is less than 1.68 million gallons. It happened while oil was being loaded into a tanker. The oil company is posting updates on the spill on its website, along with photos. Shell says much of the oil has evaporated. Others aren’t so sure.

Cities are putting more raw data online for people to view or use in apps. Among the faves listed in this post are San Francisco parking meter data, towed car data in Chicago, mosquito trap data in Edmonton and electricity use by zip code in New York City. I’d love to see that in the L.A. area, given the variety of weather we can have across the region in any given day.